WDHN(MIDLAND CITY, Ala.) -- Alabama police have an "open line of communication" with the retired Alabama trucker who took a 5-year-old autistic boy hostage from a school bus and was holding him in his underground bunker.

"Through our communication, we've been able to -- he's told us that he has electric heaters and some blankets inside, that he's taking care of [the boy]," Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said on Saturday.

Olson said he was "limited" in what new information that he could provide, but expressed gratitude for the growing concern regarding the condition of the child.